Howling By Moonlight
by Niamh Cyneburg
Summary: Out-takes and missing scenes from my imagined Universe of 'Howling At The Moon.' Will include scenes from all the stories, HATM and the future sequels, prequels and additions.
1. The Diner Incident

**A/N: **As promised, the infamous diner incident. Special mention for Kiera who knows why she is in here :)

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><p><strong>The Diner Incident<strong>

As the bell went for the last class of the day, Kaia Reynolds heaved a sigh of relief. Friday afternoons were always great, since you knew you had the whole weekend ahead of you, but she really wished that she could go straight from the Friday morning to the last class of the day. Having to deal with Lester Stevens in the only class she didn't share with one of the others, was something she could have done without. Not like she couldn't handle his annoying comments, just because she missed the familiarity of having some of the pack in close quarters. She paused for a minute to think about the way she had made friends with all of them. Collin and Brady in particular, speaking of whom, she spotted a head of dark hair poked into her classroom door.

"Oi, Midget! You planning on stickin' around for extra credit or somethin' ?" Collin snickered. Her only answer was to sashay past him while managing to bump him with her back-pack.  
>"Ow ow owwww," came his extremely fake howls of pain, holding on to his arm and hopping in the corridor just outside her class-room. Brady rolled his eyes and then bit back his intended comment when he saw their teacher looking at Collin with an amusedquizzical expression on her face.  
>"Is there a problem Mr. Jameson?" she enquired.<br>"Umm.. no ma'am," that worthy replied sheepishly, before sticking his tongue out at Kaia as soon as the teacher's back was turned. She replied in kind, only for both of them to jump at the sound of Brady clearing his throat in imitation of the teacher who had just left.  
>"Juveniles," he muttered, leading them out through the doors, where Collin and Brady's motorcycles were parked. Looking confused, Kaia glanced around, wondering where Seth was.<p>

Brady caught her eye and then winked at Collin over her head. "Seth had to go pick up some stuff for his mom, K. You wanna go get something to eat with us before we go home?" Brady asked.  
>"Sure," she replied, ignoring that slightly deflated feeling she had that Seth had left without even saying anything to her. They had grown pretty close the past couple of weeks, especially since that kiss at the party. She grabbed the helmet that Brady offered her and paused before she got on the back of his motorcycle. After an episode that involved the twins offering her a ride whenever she wanted one, Seth had gone close to ballistic until she had promised to wear the one of the spare helmets that they always had on the backs of their bikes. Slipping it on, she pulled her phone out of her pocket before climbing on. As she did, she noticed a new text.<p>

'Sorry had 2 run.. mom had errands. will call u l8er?'

She grinned to herself before quickly sending back 'sure. Ttyl. xoxo'

Climbing on the back of Brady's motorcycle, she missed the grin the two shifters threw at each other, before they sped out of the parking lot. Sped being a relative term of course. Being close to indestructible meant, that going much faster than was safe for the average human, was something these two did on a regular basis. But the last time they had done that, Kaia had been screaming with delight, and laughing out loud as the rush of speeding down the highway. That had been the fun part. The not-so-fun part came later that night when they were on patrol and Seth had phased to run over to Rachel's where he sometimes camped out under her window. Seth had seen everything in their heads and it had taken a very well timed command from Jake to stop him attacking his brothers and best friends.

While this was not something the Jameson twins held against him; that WAS his imprint after all, they understood why he would be worried. He had made them swear, on pain of death, to never cross the speed limits when Kaia was with them. Brady had been the first to capitulate and agree. Collin had been flooded with hurt that Seth would assume he or Brady would purposefully endanger Kaia's life. This of course only lasted as long as it took him to see the desperation in Seth's eyes as he contemplated the many ways she could have been hurt. Phasing back to human form, Collin looked his pack-brother right in the eye and stated, "She feels like my baby sister Seth. There is no way in hell I would let her get hurt. And neither would Brady."

Once they cleared the stretch of highway and pulled into the Diner in Forks that they liked, Collin couldn't help but laugh as Kaia attempted to get off the back of Brady's motorcycle while simultaneously tugging at the helmet she hated. It wasn't something she would refuse outright to wear though. She just made sure she voiced her displeasure at every opportunity. Nearly tripping over her own feet because she was distracted, she grumbled as she finally yanked it off her head and glared at the sniggering twins, before tossing her hair and stalking into the diner.

Once they were sitting down and reading through the menu, Kaia began drumming her fingers on the side of the table. Even after Brady called her on it, she seemed to start doing it again barely seconds later. Finally Collin couldn't help himself and burst out, "What on earth are you doing that for?"  
>Startled, she looked up and then pulled a face at him, muttering, "Oh excuse meeee Mister Harry Potter, with your <em>what on earth are you doing…<em> nyeh nyeh nyeh…"  
>Brady and Collin just looked at each other once before turning back to the other occupant at their table, who had by then resumed the relentless finger drumming. Moving as one, the boys each grabbed one of her hands, making her look up from the menu once more. Scowling, she asked, "What?"<p>

Raising his eyebrow at the sudden snappy tone of the normally sunny-natured girl, Brady couldn't help but ask, "Ok.. what's wrong with you?"  
>Slumping forward in her chair, she groaned and then mumbled, "I'm so freaking hungry. I skipped lunch because I had to clean up after that Chemistry debacle, and I woke up too late to eat breakfast this morning. I'M STARVING!"<br>Trying, and failing, to cover up their laughter the twins signaled that they were ready to order. Collin's smile turned into a wide grin as their waitress came over. Kiera was a bright, bubbly, sophomore who was always up for a good laugh. "Hey," he called out, as she approached their table, "since when do you work here?"  
>She grinned back at the 3 of them, and replied, "Since last week when my dad decided I could pitch in if I wanted a better car on my 16th."<br>"Nice" Brady interjected.  
>"So… what can I get you guys?" she jumped when Kaia suddenly began rattling off items one after another.<br>"Ok then, hungry are we?" she laughed, before taking Collin and Brady's order as well before she went back to give it in to the kitchen. Once she had gone, Kaia lowered her head to the table and pretended to die of starvation. She jumped when a big mug of hot chocolate suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the table in front of her. Looking up, she caught Kiera's infectious grin as she winked and said, "To keep you going until the food gets here. On me" before walking away.

Smirking at the other two at her table, she proceeded to drink as much of it as she could, before either one of the twins could grab the mug away from her. Laughing and joking with each other, they were distracted enough so that only Kaia noticed the tall, slender beauty who walked into the diner with 2 other girls, and took a seat in the far corner. She threw the 3 of them a disdainful glare and then proceeded to talk to her 2 friends extremely loudly. This wouldn't have bothered any of the other occupants, the diner was hardly a library, if it hadn't been for the topic of conversation.

Being as rude as possible without being actually racist, and stopping just short of truly offensive, the girl began an uninterrupted monologue about how outsiders shouldn't be allowed in places they weren't welcome. Kaia simply gaped at her in shock that someone could behave like that in public, while Brady looked at his placemat with a grim expression on his face. Kiera brought out a stack of pancakes and waffles dripping in syrup and placed it on the table, looking mutinous.  
>Confused at this turn of events, Kaia turned to Collin to ask about it, only to be shocked at the pain so obvious on his face.<br>He stared down at the table, not even raising his head when Kaia softly called his name. Brady looked up then, anger clear in his eyes. Kaia could tell it was taking an effort for him not to lose his temper, but she had no idea what was going on. She raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Brady, and he growled under his breath.  
>"That's Serena, Collin's ex-girlfriend. He broke up with her a while ago… stuff came up… and she didn't deal with it too well. Since then she's pretty much been a bitch about it. You can't even throw her out of this place because her uncle owns it. Remarks like that is the norm for her."<p>

"Let's just go man," Collin mumbled. "Before she starts in on Kaia too… you know she will."  
>Touched that his first thought was for her, even though the girl he had gone out with was being such a capital Bitch, Kaia decided on her plan of action. There was no way some high school hater was going to make her leave.<br>Her face set, she looked at the twins in turn and then said, "No. I never get to hang out with just the two of you very often. So we are staying. Queen Bitch over there can go to hell… and take her fake Pradas with her." She had raised her voice a little at the last part of her sentence, so the girl in question had turned to glare at her. She had intended to make them so uncomfortable that they would have no choice but to leave.

She had been quite thrilled when she managed to manipulate Collin Jameson into asking her out the previous year. He had always been a good-looking kinda guy, but last year he seemed to shoot up suddenly and looked more built than the line-backers at Forks High, where she went to school. But then, almost overnight, he had decided they were not a good idea and dumped her. Out of the blue. No warning whatsoever. Serena was furious. No-one dumped her. She was the one who did the dumping. So starting from then, she did nothing but cause as much discomfort as possible when it came to any of the GANG that Collin hung out with.

The fact that he had phased and was a shape-shifter who could endanger her life, was the ultimate irony. He had broken up with her, so he wouldn't hurt her, and that was all she could do now. Hurt him. As much as she possibly could. He wouldn't have minded so much if it wasn't for the way she behaved to the rest of the pack as well, including the imprints. She had made the mistake of slyly insulting Kim and Emily the last time they had been out Grocery shopping. Emily had turned to face her full on, her scars standing out clearly, and then dismissed her with a casual, "Kids" to Kim before they strolled to the check-out.

So while Serena carried on with her tirade, Kaia elected to ignore her and with Brady a willing ally, they dragged Collin out of his miserable mood and into their ridiculous conversation about nudist colonies with overweight residents. The amount of sugar they had consumed by this point made it a cinch. The more they ignored her, the angrier Serena got, until she had finally had enough and as soon as there was a lull in the conversation, she piped up to the other occupants of her table. "Well… it looks like the Jameson twins have learned to share. I wonder how they convinced her to do it…"

The shocked silence that followed was only broken by the scrape of a chair against the floor as Kaia decided that she had had enough of the girl's narrow-minded prattling. Before either one of the Jamesons could reach for her hand, she stalked over to Serena's table and loomed over the taller girl, who looked up at her with feigned dis-interest. "What do you wa…" she began to ask, when she was interrupted by a fist to her face. Clutching her nose, she stumbled backwards out of her chair, only to bump into Kiera who was holding up a tray of 3 very large hot chocolates. Soaked in the sticky beverage, and holding her injured nose, she screamed in fury before stalking out of the diner, followed by her 2 sycophantic companions.

Kiera and Kaia stood looking at each other for a few seconds before smiling and shaking hands, each one going back to their respective positions. As she passed their table, Collin snagged Kiera's hand and murmured, "No one in here ordered hot chocolate, did they?"  
>She smiled mischievously and then chirped, "I have no idea what you mean Jameson."<p>

Once she had gone, Kaia took her place at their table once more and they continued where they had left off. The sugar in their blood streams had by this point turned them into near clones of the gremlins in that movie they had watched last week. Time passed and they seemed to forget that they might have to get back, as they sat there getting further and further along a sugar high straight out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

Which was why, an hour after Serena had left, when Charlie Swan came in, looking slightly puzzled, the 3 of them had looked at each other and burst out laughing. Shaking his head, Charlie went over to them and said, "I'm assuming whatever it was that girl told me was true."  
>"Yup, Cheif" Kaia piped up. "She had a little too much to say about my friend and so I shut her up."<br>Charlie sighed and then said, "Ok you guys, you're going to have to come in with me. You can call Rachel or your mom and dad from the station."  
>"Are we under arrest?" came Kaia's slightly excited question.<p>

"No, you're not… I just need it to be a formal warning against physical violence…" came his gruff reply.

"Oh.. damn" was Kaia's disappointed observation.  
>"Yeah, I can see how worried you are" was Charlie's amused reply.<p>

Later, sitting in the station, after Charlie had made both the phone calls to their respective guardians to come and get them, Collin couldn't help but ask.  
>"What is it with you and throwing punches Kai?"<p>

She grinned and winked at him as Seth burst into the station with Rachel just behind him.

"I don't like people who mess with my family."

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><p><strong>AN: **Well? Thoughts?  
>Don't forget to review!<p> 


	2. Gravity Moved, again

**A/N: **Just a plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone when I thought about how exactly Paul ran into Rachel on the beach.

I know its short, but please review?

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><p><strong>Paul, meet Rachel Black... oh and btw, she's your soulmate.<strong>

Yawning, Rachel Black pushed open the kitchen door and flopped into a chair at the ancient dining table. Billy, seated across from her, chuckled before pushing a cup of coffee across the table to her. "Still not talking before coffee sweetheart?"

"Ungh" she grunted at her overly amused father. Just then the porch door swung open and Jake strolled in, barefoot, wearing nothing but a pair of cut-offs. Rachel's eyes narrowed at the deer-in-headlights look he had as soon as he saw her sitting there.  
>"Hey Rach… what are you doing up so early?" he asked, obviously uncomfortable.<br>"Could ask you that actually. Where've you been? " she pointedly looked at the clock above the counter.  
>"8 a.m. Jake? That's pretty early for you to even be up. And you're coming BACK from some place… What's going on?"<p>

Billy interrupted just then with a placating toned "I asked him to check on something for me Rach…heard some animals out back last night, so I woke him up to check if there were any tracks."

Rachel looked from her father to her brother, eyes narrowed in suspicion, "Whatever it is that you two are upto… I'm going to find out. I've been home for 3 days and the 2 of you are acting like anxious puppies…" she missed Jake's sudden urge to laugh at that comparison, while she continued on her rant. "You are always talking about something and when I walk into the room you stop abruptly. Jake, you disappear for hours on end, not to mention, you AND all your little friends look like some experiment for Human Growth hormone… Something is rotten in Denmark, and I AM going to find out what it is."

Breathing deeply, she took another look at Jake's face, hiding her surprise at the flat look in his eyes. Jake had never been good at hiding his emotions, she and Rebecca had always teased him about it. But right now, she couldn't tell what exactly emotion was crossing his face. He leaned forward, resting both palms flat on the table-top. Her insides shrinking at the barely veiled hostility in his demeanor, Rachel Black had a sudden revelation; her little brother wasn't so little anymore. He towered over her, even when she was standing. And the look in his eyes wasn't the kind you normally saw in the eyes of a 17year old.

Identical pairs of eyes stared into each other, icy cold determination in one, and suspicious curiosity in the other. "Don't make accusations, or assumptions, about things you don't know anything about Rachel. Leave it alone. You already made it clear you came home only for a while… and then you're running off again. Too chicken to face La Push… too chicken to stay here, your home, because you can't come to terms with what happened to mom." At her slight gasp for air, Jake straightened up, and turned to leave the kitchen, heading for his room. "Some of us take our responsibilities seriously Rachel… Don't act like you know what that's like."

Once he had left, Rachel, shell-shocked, turned to her father, but the grim look on his face told her that no explanations would be forthcoming from that quarter. "I'm going down to the beach… I'm taking my board, just in case the waves look good," she muttered, making her way to her room. She barely heard her father call after her, "Rach, no going into the water if there is no one else around too ok…"  
>Without acknowledging her father's advice, she slipped into her room, pulled on her wetsuit, grabbed her surf board and bolted from the house.<p>

Sitting in the bright sunshine on the beach, Rachel decided to make the most of the rare good weather. She looked around and didn't see anyone else near the shore, so going against everything she had ever learned or lived by, that had to do with surfing, she picked up her board and paddled out. The back of her mind screamed at her irresponsible action. She KNEW she shouldn't be out alone. No-one surfed alone, that was the rule they all abided by. But Rachel was sick of rules. Everything she had learned this past year, all of the rule-following had changed nothing.

And she had to admit to herself, Jake's taunts about running away from responsibility had hit a little closer to home than she liked. Once she was out past the breakers, she straddled her board and waited for her wave. She would know which one it was when it came up. That perfect curl. She had once sat out there for almost an hour, because she refused to ride in on a lesser one. Barely a few minutes later though, she felt a prickling on the back of her neck as she watched a swell form in the distance. This was it. Slowly turning so that the wave would catch her at the perfect angle, she looked toward the shore, absently wondering where the two tall figures had suddenly appeared from.

Standing now, she welcomed that euphoric rush that always accompanied a beautiful wave. Somewhere in her mind she laughed at the idea that she was the surfing nut and yet it was her TWIN that fell for the professional surfer.  
>Paddling the last few feet to shore, she looked up at the sound of whistling and clapping from the two man audience she had found. Up close she noticed that they were both tall, and built a lot like Jake. She wondered if these were part of Sam Uley's gang that she had been hearing about. Not willing to let her high dissipate, she grinned at them and then took a bow, board clutched under her arm.<p>

"Rachel? Rachel Black?" the shorter of the two inquired. "Yup," she replied, before her eyes widened at his familiar grin. "Oh My God… Jared?" she dropped her board in shock, throwing her arms around him. "What is with all you guys and looking this way." He muffled a laugh and then held an arm out towards the taller boy. "You remember Paul right? Paul Walker?"  
>Turning, Rachel was met with a wall of sinfully muscled bare chest. Looking up, past the bronzed skin of his neck and jaw, the very feminine side of her couldn't help but notice that those perfect lips were at just the right height for kissing.<p>

From the time her mother had bought her and her sister their first fairy tale book, and she heard of how the princess went up on her tip-toes to kiss the prince, that had been the yard-stick she had measured all her kisses by. The guy had to be tall enough for her to stand on her toes to kiss. While that had definitely narrowed down her dating options while she had been on the reservation, she had decided that having standards was not a bad thing.

As her gaze moved upward, she was taken aback by the look in those onyx eyes. Secretly, she thought those eyes were perfect to drown yourself in. Feeling like she could stare into them for days on end, she mentally shook herself and forced her brain to co-operate. "Of course I do, how are you?" she said cheerily. She expected a 'hello' or even a 'hi there,' and she might even have settled for an uninterested 'hey.'  
>What she was definitely NOT expecting, was a searing gaze that felt like it was seeing all the way through her very soul. No-one had ever looked at her like that. Not even Jason, either while they were dating, or the years they had been friends. Everything she had ever heard about sparks flying when eyes met, paled in comparison to this frisson of excitement that wound its way through her.<p>

And all because of this beautiful boy who was currently staring at her like she was the only woman on earth.

Realizing that they were simply standing there and gaping at each other, she shook her head slightly, and was about to ask Paul what was wrong with him when she realized that Jared was currently sniggering extremely loudly at his friend's reaction to seeing her. Confused now, she raised an eyebrow at him, only for him to burst out laughing altogether.  
>That seemed to rouse Paul from his near catatonic state, and he turned on his friend with furious eyes.<br>"What the hell is wrong with you Jared?" came Rachel's voice instead of Paul's deep one. One look and Jared could see the exasperation on her face.

"Oh Jake is going to just LOVE this…" he mumbled, still sniggering.  
>"Jake? What's Jake got to do with the price of tea in China anyway?" she snapped.<p>

"How much do you remember of our legends Rachel?" Jared asked, still chuckling.  
>"I remember all of them, Dad used to tell them to us practically every night. What does that have to do with why the two of you are acting like gawking idiots?"<p>

"Maybe we should talk to your dad. You will probably take it better coming from him... " said a deep voice that made mountain sized butterflies erupt in her stomach.

Ignoring the chocolatey smooth tones of the almost-God next to her, she glared at Jared before asking them both, "Have you all lost your minds?"

A few hours and explanations later Rachel Black was asking herself that same question all over again.

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><p><strong>AN**: Please review?


	3. Theory of Imprinting 101

**AN**: _It's been a while I know, so please do accept my apologies_.

For those of you who have read Howling At The Moon, this chapter falls between Chapters 14 & 15. For those of you who havn't read HATM, why havn't you? :P

**Theory of Imprinting 101**

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><p>"I'm telling you Sam, you can laugh all you want, or ignore what is so obvious, but the wolves aren't the only ones who feel something when you guys imprint," Emily stated calmly, watching Sam as he stared out their bedroom window.<br>He had just returned from his usual patrol with Ryan, only to have to stop halfway through and send Ryan home, because he had been so distracted.  
>"I'm not laughing Emi," he sighed, turning to face her, "I just don't know how it's even possible."<br>She raised an eyebrow, making sure he saw the full extent of her disbelief. "You can change into a giant wolf at will, fight vampires, know who your soulmate is at one glance," she paused for effect, "and the one thing you can't grasp is that said soulmate might feel the pull too?"

He couldn't hold back a chuckle at that. Looking in her eyes, he could see the force of her own belief in her theory, and he couldn't help but admire her determination to prove it.  
>"Ok," he said. "Lay it on me... Tell me all about how you knew I wasn't crazy when I told you we were meant to be," he said, drawing her into his arms as he spoke. Leaning back against the headboard, he rested his chin on her head and prepared to listen.<br>"Oh I definitely thought you were crazy. There you were, having just dumped my cousin... my sister really, and now you were following me around proclaiming eternal devotion and telling me you'd die if I left... of course I thought you were crazy."  
>Leaning her head against his chest, she felt the rumble of his deep laughter. Smiling a little, she proceeded with her explanation. "You said you felt this kind of snap when you looked in my eyes... a shift... right?" she questioned.<p>

Nodding, he recalled with great clarity, the exact way his priorities had simply shifted. He had been struggling with his transformation, only learning what he was after a terrifying week of being an over-sized monster. It took him that long to calm down enough to turn back, and about the same amount of time to start believing what Billy and old Quil told him.  
>His brain kept interrupting their explanations to tell him that he was just losing his mind. That there was no other explanation, no legends, no cold ones. Just insanity. Then he had looked right into Emily's eyes and it didn't even matter any more.<br>None of it did.

Pulling himself back to the present, he concentrated on what she was telling him. "You remember how I avoided you that week?" she asked, and he winced. "After we spoke that first time, and you said that I was it for you," she continued, hurrying over this part, knowing how hard it was for him to recall those days. Swallowing he replied, "You said you wanted nothing to do with the person who hurt Leah so much."  
>"Yes," she replied, "and then I tried staying away from you as much as I could, but it wasn't working. I would wake up and find I had sleep walked to the front door. I had nightmares, about horrible things about to happen to me, and you would save me, but only to get hurt instead of me. It's like you were taking my place."<br>He sat up to look her in the eye, "You never told me that Emi," she sighed and went on.  
>"We had bigger things to worry about than nightmares then. By the end of a week, I was exhausted, I hadn't slept, I had completely lost my appetite, and I felt like it had all started the first time I met you"<br>Taking another deep breath, she continued, "That day... the first time I saw you phase..."  
>"You mean when I hurt you," he interrupted bitterly, stroking his hand down the side of her face.<br>"That day," she carried on as if he had never interrupted, I was on my way to the car to leave for Makah." She ignored his panicked expression. "I had decided to leave and never come back until I felt that this whole thing had ended. I wanted to stop feeling that way about you. But you know what happened."  
>He simply nodded, too shocked to speak.<p>

She had planned to leave forever?

Raising her palm to his cheek she reassured him, "I would have left, sure, but I doubt I would have been able to stay away. Just listen to the rest of what I have to say, OK?"  
>Without waiting for him to reply she started ticking off points on her finger.<br>"One, for the entire time I avoided you, or we were apart, I had nightmares. Maybe mine were worse because I was so angry, but they happened during that separation. Two, I started feeling sick, nothing definite, but just a general feeling of being sniffly, just not 100 percent. Three, In all my nightmares, I was always saved by you, but you always got hurt in my place, it bothered me. Why would you sacrifice yourself for me?"  
>She held up her hand to prevent him interrupting. "Four, the entire time you were nearby, I felt better. I knew whenever you were camped out in the hallway of the hospital. I knew you didn't come inside my room when Leah was there, but even though I was barely conscious, I knew when you were there, and I felt better."<br>Still dumbstruck, Sam just nodded at her, feeling a dawning in his mind. Realizing he was finally understanding the point she was trying to make, she smiled softly, "You see what I mean about Michelle now right? She's feeling the pull already. It's not as strong yet, probably because they're still young, and the situation is so different from ours. But she isn't feeling well quite constantly whenever Ryan is still in La Push, and always feels better when he's camped out in Seattle. She might not be having nightmares, but that could just be because they are friends, and maybe heading to something more, and they're not angry with each other like we were."  
>Sam nodded and then walked to the window, leaning on it again and taking a deep breath. "I'm pretty sure you're right Emi, everything I keep seeing in Ryan's head fits in with what you just said, and it's driving the kid crazy thinking his imprint is sick, and he has no idea what to do about it."<br>"Maybe I could talk to him tomorrow," she ventured, "just put his mind at ease."  
>"I think that would be perfect babe. Thank you. I love you." He punctuated that last line with a tiny kiss to her forehead before leaning down to claim her lips.<p>

Smiling to herself, she kissed him back, knowing in her heart that this kind of love was truly special.

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><p>I promise I will be updating more often now, so please do review and let me know if you liked my peace offering or not. Ryan and Michelle's story will be updated super soon as well!<p> 


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